Meeting Report from June 26, 2001

Meeting

Rotary Wheel

Report

June 26, 2001
By GAYLE SMITH

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     Charlotte Rotary president Don Steger closed his term as the Club's leader reflecting on his past year as being "one of the most enjoyable in my 21 years in Rotary." He thanked everyone for the extraordinary opportunity he has had in serving as president and thanked all the members of the board, the leadership teams, and members from all the committees.
      "When I began this year early in June of last year at Rotary International I found out what Rotary is all about. I got a first-hand view of Frank Devlyn's concept of 'create awareness and take action.' I also saw a real commitment to what Rotary is all about in our own Club.
     "Tom Robertson made a commitment to do another Habitat House and a lot of our members helped with money and time. We deserve to be called "The Rotary Club of Charlotte" and we are respected in our district because we are good givers.
     "We supported the University Club in helping build a school in Bolivia. Dick Klingman insured our meetings went smoothly — a lot of people worked behind the scenes to make this meeting happen each week. The president comes in and everything is just done.
      "David Anderson, chair of the program committee, gave us great programs throughout the year. Sadler Barnhardt worked on the classifications structure to assist us in bringing people in. Rex Welton, our Rotarian of the Year, did an outstanding job in membership development. I want to thank everyone for helping bring in enough members to guarantee we stay over 300. We added more than 55 members this year — you've done a great job. I appreciate your allowing me to push and keep reminding you that we must attract younger members.
     "We provide support for career education in the community through the public schools and Junior Achievement. Billy Wireman was named an honorary member and he also earned the Excellence in Management Award from the Club. We assisted in neighborhood revitalization through Frank Martin's community services area. Through Doug Bean we participated in the tree-planting program, paying for trees at Bruns Avenue School. We gave assistance to Alan Barnhardt and the Carolina Raptor Center and agreed to continued support.
     "We awarded $11,000 in scholarships to outstanding seniors from our local high schools. And we continued our support for Polio Plus.
     "Don Haack, chair of our Rotary Foundation, helped bring in more than 30 new Paul Harris Fellows and we have nine benefactors for the year.
     "All the good things we wanted to do we took a crack at. And Jim Woodward has promised to help in trying to set up a cardiology program in Uganda next year.
     "Everyone in this Club really puts 'Service Above Self,' and we have 310 great servant leaders in our community. You improve the quality of life for Charlotte and others around the world."
     President Don closed his comments with a quote from Bruce Wilkinson's book, "The Prayer of Jabez": "Oh that you would enlarge our territory." President Don stated he believed that line works well for Charlotte Rotary. "Expanding territory does not mean expanding wealth. Expanding territory means to participate with our brothers and sisters as Rotarians and see what Rotary is doing in over 160 countries around the world."
     President Don recognized the presidents who had preceded him. "IPP is the best position in the world. 1 have great warmth and appreciation for you and for Rotary. Thank you and God Bless you all."
     D. G. Martin was recognized as a special guest of the Club. President Don thanked D. G. for coming to "hear my swan song." Harry Daugherty introduced other guests and visiting Rotarians.
     Jim Kelley gave Health and Happiness, sharing many "Dear Pastor" letters from children. Chuck Lineberry led the Club with a round of song. Joining President Don at the head table were Kick Jackson, Leland Park, Worth Williamson, Howard Chadwick. Dick Klingman, Marilyn Bowler, and Luther Moore.
     Donald Haack recognized Gene Williams for his achievement of a second-level Paul Harris.

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HAIL TO THE CHIEF!

JAMES H. WOODWARD

JAMES H. WOODWARD

85th President of Charlotte Rotary

     The man who has led the University of North Carolina at Charlotte during the decade of the 90s now will put his stamp on Charlotte Rotary. Chancellor James H. (Jim) Woodward takes over as president of the Club for 2001-2002 — in the same month he celebrates his eleventh anniversary as leader of the UNC system's fourth largest university.
     In his spare time President Jim makes cherry and walnut furniture for his children and grandchildren. That tells you he likes hands-on work. It also indicates he pays attention to details while envisioning the whole.
     That's been his leadership style at UNC-Charlotte. He's been attentive to the details of guiding the institution toward a much broader role in the region and state.
     A Florida native who grew up in Georgia, Jim earned bachelors, masters and Ph.D. degrees from Georgia Tech. He also holds an MBA and honorary doctorate from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).
     He came to the Queen City from UAB where he was senior vice president for the University College that served 11,000 of UAB's 14,000 students. Earlier, he was an engineering professor there.
     UNC-Charlotte had nearly 13,000 students when he arrived; today, there are about 17,000. To learn his way around, he lived in residence halls and began each day with a run on the campus.
     He inherited plans for a $6-million fund-raising campaign. It ultimately raised $32 million. Jim has barely stopped running or raising money since.
     Under his leadership, the university has also grown in programs, services and stature. He mobilized university supporters and community leaders into a major effort to grow UNC-Charlotte into a research university. Now it has programs in mechanical and electrical engineering, applied mathematics, biology, information technology, and education leadership.
     In the early 1990s, UNC-Charlotte built the C. C. Cameron Applied Research Center. Today, the nationally recognized facility is filled to capacity and conducts more than $5 million annually in externally funded research.
     Last fall the university formed the Charlotte Institute for Technology Innovation. A joint venture with the Charlotte Chamber, through its "Advantage Carolina" initiative, the institute will be developed on 100 acres of the UNC-Charlotte campus.
     UNC-Charlotte plans a Center for Optoelectronics and Optical Communication. Recently the university along with Bank of America, First Union Corp. and Dell Computer Corp. formed an alliance to establish the E-Business Technology Institute. One of the initial laboratories will address data security, privacy and cryptography, a priority for conducting commerce via the Internet.
     Our new leader doesn't let any grass grow under his feet — especially on the athletic fields. Under his leadership the university has built the James H. Barnhardt (former Charlotte Rotarian) Student Activities Center that houses Halton Arena and the Irwin Belk Track and Field Center which includes the TransAmerica Field for soccer and track and field venues. He also led the university from the Sunbelt Conference into Conference U.S.A., an affiliation that has greatly enhanced Charlotte (the new athletic moniker for UNC-Charlotte) national exposure.
      In addition to all his university involvement President Jim has managed to find time to befriend students and faculty members and take leading roles in the community. He led a successful United Way campaign in 1996 and was winner of the 1995 Excellence in Management Award.
     Jim and his wife Martha have three children and four grandchildren.
     Please welcome Jim Woodward as the 85th president of Charlotte Rotary.

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